In high performance motor sport, such as drag racing, a popular gear transmission drive is the Lenco transmission sold by the Lenco Equipment Company. The Lenco transmission is a planetary gear transmission system. The Lenco system provides a modular system, each module having an actuator, which when actuated, causes a gear ratio change which effectively changes gear for the vehicle. A typical racing car would employ a 4 or 5 speed transmission which equates to a 3 or 4 module Lenco transmission system.
To change from low to high speed gear in the Lenco system requires the progressive and sequential activation of the actuators, which requires the manual activation of a shifter apparatus.
The current Lenco transmission system is sold with a mechanical shifter apparatus which comprises a plurality of levers. Each lever being linked to, and associated with, a respective actuator. Hence, to rise through the gears requires the sequential shifting of the levers in turn.
Considering that in a race condition, the progressive shifting of each gear may occur very quickly, and potentially every 0.8 second, having multiple levers provides a very cumbersome arrangement. In race conditions requiring fast reaction times and the need to be sequentially and progressively actuating the actuators, the multi-lever shifter apparatus provides problematic issues in that the wrong lever could be shifted out of the required sequence. This is particularly true for those unfamiliar with the multi-lever arrangement.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an alternative mechanical shifter apparatus which avoids the need to employ a cumbersome multi-lever arrangement.